IMF Lowers World Growth Forecast, With US As A Bright Spot

WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for world growth on Tuesday, warning that stagnation in Europe, a slowdown in large emerging markets, and heightened political tensions in Russia and the Middle East threatened an increasingly fragile global economy.

At a news conference starting its semiannual meeting, an event that attracts financiers, policy makers, and central bankers from around the globe, the fund’s top economists highlighted a tepid economic recovery in which the major nations of the world have failed to keep up with the United States.

The fund brought its estimate for global growth down to 3.3 percent from 3.7 percent and reduced its forecast for 2015 to 3.8 percent. The fund pointed to weaker growth in China, Europe, Japan, and Latin America (Brazil in particular) as the main culprits behind the broad retrenchment.

By contrast, the outlook for the US economy, fresh off its very strong jobs report last week, was revised sharply upward, to 2.2 percent this year from 1.7 percent.

In an interview on Friday, Christine Lagarde, IMF managing director, said global growth risked being stuck in a rut for a long time. “If nothing gets done in a bold way, there is a risk of new mediocre” level of growth, she said.